Aimee` Fonte` about a fortune 500 prize pool winnings with East China Township Payments. Is it a real sweepst

Question

sweepstakes #B5-965, is it real or a joke, I love to claim the prize. Bank listed is Seaway Community Bank, St. Clair , MI 48079. Letter come from East China Township Payments. Tel:[phone] or Fax:[phone].

Answer 1

It's not a joke. It is a scam. They want your bank info so they can drain your account. Don't give them any money or any info and see if they want to mail you a check.

Answer 2

This is a big fraud scam. Don't fall for it! Somebody is trying to part you and your money. This same scam is being sent out all over the country. The checks are forgeries. They are written on the real bank accounts of many different companies, and even small city & other local governments (like your East China Township.) Here's how the scammer wants this scheme to work:

You deposit the forged check in your own bank account. You then phone for further instructions. You are told to write a check of your own for some specified amount, approximately 80% of the forged check you deposited. You mail your check to an address they will give you when you phone for instructions (often in Texas.) Then, the forged check you deposited will bounce, because it is a fake. BUT, if you have enough money in your bank account to cover the check you wrote, it will go through, and YOU WILL BE THE LOSER!! You will never receive the promised big prize money.

There are a number of big red flags here that should warn anybody who thinks about it for even a moment.

1. In a real sweepstakes, you never have to pay money to claim your prize. They don't need your money to give you money, and even if they did, they could just withhold that amount from your prize payout, right? Why would you need to pay them?

2. In a real sweepstakes, you will never have to contact "them" for instructions - they will contact you.

3. If a group of Fortune 500 companies was sponsoring a sweepstakes, you can bet they would not have a local government paying out the prizes for them. Governments just don't do that sort of thing.

4. In a real sweepstakes, you would have to have entered the contest yourself.

5. In a real sweepstakes, you would not receive a letter from a US company or government mailed from Canada as these are (look at the return address and the postmark on the envelope - neither will match the information on the letter inside the envelope.)

6. In a real sweepstakes, the letter announcing your prize will not be written in extremely poor English, like these letters are. Read it through carefully. Does that sound like it was written by a native English speaker?

7. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don't get greedy and make yourself a sucker.

Good luck! Beware!